Conventionally, the general focus of wafer level probe system manufacturers has been on optimizing products and customers throughputs, while the emerging industry of transparent and thin film semiconductor industry has not been receiving due consideration, awaiting its maturity in the marketplace. New technologies in this emerging industry include, for example, zinc oxide-based semiconductors that can be used in various applications such as transparent electronics.
However, transparent electronics are sensitive to the various photonic energies of incident lights at different wavelengths. As a result, the problem currently facing the industry in this field revolves around a better understanding of the reaction of the new technologies to illumination rich environments. This problem can be analyzes in terms of two key issues: (1) How does the material system work; and (2) how do devices, prototypes, and products act in illumination rich environments.
The following exemplary online websites illustrate the state of the art in the field of the present invention:                http://www.cascademicrotech.com/products;        http://www.signatone.com;        http://www.escitec.com;        http://www.semiprobe.com/our-solutions/specialty-probers/;        http://www.micromanipulator.com/products; and        http://www.micromanipulator.com/products.        
However, none of the current manual wafer probe station manufacturers offer a combined illumination/electrical performance and/or reliability tool. As an example, one manufacturer focuses on test equipment for electronics that will be sealed and packaged. Another manufacturer offers illumination or optics that use microscopes for sample alignment purposes, but not illumination testing. Yet another manufacturer offers an “optoelectronic system” capable of probing electrically, and measuring the output of light emitting devices; however, while this conventional system may provide a solution for semiconductor emitters, it does not do so for intentional and unintentional detectors. Still another manufacturer offers several models of manual probe stations geared at the silicon market, with a specialty tool that does not address illumination measurements.
Present day researchers use simple light bulbs to simulate the visible spectrum, or light emitting diodes to simulate a more specific, but still general spectrum, such as “green light,” to create a general atmosphere of illumination, while the on-wafer devices are being tested for reliability. However, neither well controlled and calibrated light spectrum and intensity control, nor tools that can conduct such experiments repeatedly, have been reported.
While the foregoing conventional methods and test equipment have provided a certain level of wafer level reliability testing, there still remains a need for a more efficient wafer level electrical probe system with multiple wavelength and intensity illumination capabilities, which would enable concurrent reliability studies of illumination stimulation, electrical stimulation, and the interplay of both electrical and illumination stimulation.